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Music, Moksha style
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At a recent Moksha gig, it was an all-original set list comprising up-tempo, foot-tapping tracks
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ONE THING common to any Moksha concert is you will find its vocalist prancing around on stage, making polite chatter with someone; say, for example, the bassist, even as the latter grins vacantly and concentrates hard on keeping up with the drummer.
Now that casual arrogance works if you are playing with Bruce Springsteen in the E-Street Band. When Moksha's vocalist Leon Ireland affects pretty much the same, casual Mark Knopfler style, like he did, during the Live 1o1 `Unzipped' concert this past weekend at the Unwind Center, it doesn't work too well. It comes across as forced.
That, fortunately, was the only jarring note during the show.
For a change, it was awesome to be present at a gig where the band's sole ambition wasn't to blow your ear-drums out - and play heavy metal badly, while they were at it.
Of course, the band in question is Moksha, easily one of Chennai's best bands, and these guys can pull off originals better than most bands in the country.
The all-original set list that evening comprised some up-tempo, foot-tapping tracks. True, these originals sounded pretty simplistic, but these guys don't ramble unnecessarily and the band is tighter than a bunch of Vietnam veterans. They can create catchy riffs, latch on to a great hook — take, for example, the band's theme for the evening, `Walk Before You Crawl.' The solo skills of the band's painfully shy axemeister, Christy Samuel, somewhat unfairly overshadowed the rest of the band, and in particular, Vasanth David's impressive stickwork. (Who knows, if David keeps at it for a couple of decades, he might well be India's answer to Carter Beauford.) Timmy Madhukar, one of the city's best vocalists, did an impressive turn on the synth.
And while many of Moksha's synth-flavoured OC's carry strong imprints of Van Halen and Iron Maiden, nobody ought to complain, considering Ireland can do one hell of a Bruce Dickinson impression. Ireland's got the range to incorporate near-operatic tones, but he is equally at home with the moony-eyed Chicago look, which was what he wore during the pleasantly soulful `Sorry.'
VIJAY PARTHASARATHY
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
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